The European Parliament has called for a freeze on EU funds for Slovakia due to Fico's policies
The European Parliament has backed a resolution calling on the European Commission to freeze EU budget payments to Slovakia due to risks to the rule of law and the EU’s financial interests.
This was reported by Aktuality.
418 MEPs voted in favor of the resolution. The document highlights the need to apply the conditionality mechanism—a tool that allows for restricting funding to countries where there are issues with compliance with the principles of the rule of law.
The report was initiated by German Green MEP Daniel Freund. According to him, the document received broad support among the main political groups in the European Parliament.
While preparing the report, MEPs visited Bratislava and met with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Freund noted that he did not see any convincing arguments from the Slovak authorities regarding the situation in the country.
At the same time, representatives of the opposition party “Progressive Slovakia” abstained from voting, explaining that while they understand the importance of the rule of law, they do not wish to support a decision that could harm the country.
The European Parliament’s decision is advisory in nature—the final decision on a possible freeze of funding will be made by the European Commission and EU member states, and this process could take several months.
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